Beef Bagel

Well, well, well, so it’s turning out not to be the great steaming pile of kaka that The Bagel had first thought.

“Going to England is one of my options because the Premier League is one of the best leagues in the world and it will be a big challenge. But I have not spoken or made up my mind about any one club. I am prepared to go to England because I believe I would progress there,” so says Nani on refusing to sign a new deal with current club, Sporting Lisbon.

Not hard to translate that one from footballer speak: “I want to play in the Premiership.” So, the question remains, for whom?

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We’re just going to have to shit it all summer, aren’t we, or at least until Dimitar the Great puts pen to cockerel headed paper? So, today brings the latest in astronomical bids for our prized asset, with the figure at £27.5m plus the £11m rated Loius Saha. No offence Loius but somehow £39m straight sounds a lot better. Still, neither are exactly palatable and despite Berbatov’s agent, Emil Danchev’s words this morning The Bagel and hopefully Spurs are staying strong. He said:

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There’s a story that hit the press today that made my heart sink like a stone. Fresh from the promise of a second 5th place and getting further from the truth of the gap between the Big Four and the rest of the league, I was trying on a few delusions of grandeur for size. My last post got The Bagel thinking. Maybe we can do it next season if we can just make a good two more top signings than arsenal or Liverpool. We may just be able to reach critical mass but with no area more critical in my eye than the left wing, I am most frustrated to read of Benitez’s interested in top target Morten Gamst Pedersen.

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Fascinating game, wasn’t it? I spent the first half in an East London pub with my lady friend form the morning of the Reading game and neither a Chelsea nor Man U fan in sight or certainly earshot anyway. Nicely toasted from vat of wine, it was back to the Bakery for the second half where we could make our viewing a little more entertaining. Best cup final I’ve ever seen.

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..but nothing out of the ordinary as yet.

The links have flared back into life like those irritating joke birthday candles, between our very good and 5th placed selves and the likes of Curtis Davies, Darren Bent, David Nugent and now, as spotted by Adie and the more eagle eyed amongst you, Eider Gudjohnson with the outs looking like Mido and Ghaly with a question mark over Defoe. Breathe.

So how do we feel? What do we think? Give me the details Bagel! I shall.

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You know just how drunk someone is when they greet you for the second time in 10 minutes like it’s the first time they’ve seen you. That was the state of Jason when I got to his birthday drinks last night.

“Alright mate, come here,” he says as I repeat exactly what I said a few minutes ago, doing my best to make it sound fresh. I don’t have the heart to do it to him on his day, especially with such innocent drunkard’s smile on his face.

“How’ve you been?” he slurs.

“Yeah good, mate, really good. So much has happened since I went to the bar to get myself a beer.”

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One more game. It feels like it’s the end of the holidays and I’ m going back to school on Monday. Let’s hope. we finish it off with one last party at the Lane; 6-0 should do it, which in The Bagel’s book qualifies as a drubbing (3-0 being a sound beating, 4-0 a rout and 5-0 a thrashing).

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Like the Yid of The North, The Bagel was stuck at work last night while Jimmy Ticket was the lucky recipient of the most crumb covered season ticket in town. By the way Jim, I still haven’t received the match report. Perhaps it got lost in the mail.

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A house full of computers and not an internet connection amongst them. Such was my torture yesterday after for our well won three points.

So, we’re going to finish fifth. We have to. It’s just too easy. One more win would probably do it and there can’t be an easier fixture than Man City at home, except maybe Man City away.

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I couldn’t help cheering on Osasuna last night. The Sevilla fans, both at the games and here on the bagel, were top notch but damn them, damn that club all the way to hell and sodding Kanoute for that matter. I wanted them to go out. I wanted them to concede in the last - dirty cheating wankers that they were against us but I’ll save my venom for the final and wherever Sam Allradyce ends up, which according to the Sun is a dead cert to be Newcastle for next season; Big Face manager, small club from Scotland.

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